The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-08-06
AN OLD KENTUCKY HOME.
.Inlx Atlantic

architects by former governor of the state. who was a stone mason in early ! life and worked honestly at his trade until the people called him into an- other sphere ofaction. The house was at once thoroughly comfortable and extremely inconvenient additions had ] been made to the main building at different times. with no idea of gen eral effect. From the broad front ] porch one entered at once a large, high room which was parlor, library and sitting room all in one, and very at tractive it was with cheerful paper and carpet, comfortable rocking chairs and sofas, and big open fireplace with great brass knobbed andirons. Op- posite the front door and leading to the back porch was hall, from which door opened directly upon some steps leading to what was called the "big upstairs" This room, which was of necessity entered headforemost as one ascended the stairs, took in the main body of the house, and held al- ways three double beds, with ample space for us many more when the house was crowded. Two bedrooms opened from the parlor below, and from the back one another flight of stairs ascended to rooms above, known as the "little upstairs" The char acteristic feature of the building was the entire lack of means of communi- cation between the two parts of the upper floor. In the large room over the parlor one might hear plainly the voices of the occupants of an adjacent room, but to reach them it was nec- essary to decend one stairway, trav- erse the whole length of the house and ascend another flight. Above the 'little stairs" was the attic here hung festoons of okra, red peppers, onions and garden herbs for seasoning in the corners were bags of nuts and punches of popcorn, and apples and peaches were spread on deal boards 10 dry; there were bits of old harness, a rag ded sidesaddle that was to be recov- cred some day, a shotgun or two, and some hunting coats, and in dark shelving recess were some relics of 1 the day when Uncle Doctor was medical student and practising phys ican--some bones which Mir. Venus would have classified as "human wa rious" These were source of infi- nite terror to every child and negro on the place, and made visit to the attic after dark perilous expedition, ! Ifecessitating ample companionship, and subject to sudden panics.
 ! lls.1 1 stairs-for it was impossible to go anywhere about the house without passing through somebody's private apartment-three or four steps led down to large porch, open only on two sides, and those so trellised and covered with vines that it was the most delightful of summer dining rooms. From the porch opened ca pacious storerooms, and just around the corner was the kitchen, large, dis orderly, often crowded, but clean in the main, and the source of most toothsome and abundant fare. At one corner of the porch stood an iron boupd hogshcad, which caught and stored the rain water from the roof. We used to listen. in summer storm, to the raindrops on the shingles, and hear them gutter along through the tin spout down to this old receptacle; and when the rain was over, when the fresh, sweet, earthly odor was abroad, and the sun was hanging glistening jewels on every flower and shrub, we would climb upon the balustradc of the porch and peer eagerly into the depths of the old hogshead, looking for the real diamonds that the negros : said were sometimes brought down by the rain. After breakfast there was always group of negroes about the porch, each one armed with a tin cup or plate, and waiting for the dai- ly allowance of molasses, sugar and coffee to be given out from the store room, hoping also for some tidbit from the remains of the meal.
 Walks made of flat, irregular stones led from the kitchen door to various points in the yard to the lot where the milking was done to the smoke house, the duck pond and poultry yard and the line of orderly cabins known as "the quarters :" to the gar den with its picturesque miDgling of fruit and vegetables and old fashioned flowers, and to the cisterns, to whose water the limestone rock gave the same tonic quality that 1t fnparts to blue grass, making this the finest grazing country in the world. Near the garden was the circular icehouse, a most seductive building, whose slanting roof began about two feet above the ground, and was delightful ly messy and slippery. There we would slide by the hour, and many were the rents--not only in our clothes, but iB our small perscfis ss well-which were due to it's ragged ah s.I I,ant ,,atla Wa Lvnx.y II